John Cockburn had been a Marine for nearly eight months on December 7, 1941, when
he was stationed on the USS Maryland in Pearl Harbor. His most memorable experience
in the war came as part of an artillery company that landed on Iwo Jima on its D-Day,
February 19, 1945, when the Marines suffered over 6,000 casualties. Cockburn took
some shrapnel in his arm but only missed a few days of action; he saw the raising of the
flag on Mt. Surabachi from the deck of a ship while recuperating.